Large forces of Russia's Northern Fleet will be involved in this training exercise, Mr. Ivanov said. The preparations are going well, and the Russian minister expects the event to prove up to the mark.
The aim of the forthcoming joint exercise is to raise the operative compatibility of Russian and American naval forces.
Mr. Ivanov said he and his U.S. counterpart had examined the possibility of Russia's cooperation with the U.S. in missile defense. In theory, Russia has never ruled out the possibility of cooperating with the U.S. in missile defense, but on condition that such cooperation is fully controlled by the government, as this is a highly sensitive area, the Russian minister pointed out.
Already, experts in the two countries have been instructed to step up their high-tech cooperation, Mr. Ivanov said. We would like that cooperation to advance faster, he added.
One of the key priorities of military cooperation between Russia and the U.S. should be toughening control over the spread of portable missile launchers, believes the Russian minister. Along with that issue, he and Mr. Rumsfeld reportedly discussed measures to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the fight against global terrorism. Regional problems were touched upon, too. In addition, Mr. Ivanov summed up to his American counterpart the results of a recent exercise in the Murmansk region, where Russian troops had been training to defend nuclear sites against terrorist attacks and to respond to nuclear accidents.
Mr. Rumsfeld reportedly told his host about U.S. plans to reconfigure its military presence in the world. He said that the development of security cooperation between Russia and the States was in his country's best interest. According to the U.S. Defense Secretary, cooperation in this area is prompted by factors such as international terrorism and WMD proliferation. In his words, it has now become obvious that on many issues, security interests come closer together with time.
